I bought a Sat Nav..

[Admiral Huddy]

I thought it was about time I bought a Sat Nav so I can find peoples houses when being called out. I was feedup of printing directions from Google maps before leaving. So I got the NavMan S80 from Halfords, half price! :D

Ok, so I get home and set it up for our weekend trip to Alton Towers. Off we go, and it takes me to the M25... Why oh why did I listen to this 7inch piece of silicon.. 8 miles down the road.. BANG - 1 hour of traffic on the A12!!!!

Then half way up the M1, the Sat Nav said, "Please plug in external power source".. So I plugged in the power from the cig lighter. Nope, the fuss on the cig lighter had blown!! So no sat nav and not a clue where I was going.. I had to buy a bloody map!!!!!!!

Anyway, coming home our exhaust pipe fell off and sat nav (now charged) told me to go the M25.. on A Sunday evening!!!... No F**** way matey :D

[Burble]

Sat nav units aren't perfect but a lot of the issues can be traced to how they are setup. Was yours set to use the quickest or shortest route? They're often not the same thing.

As far as the traffic goes - how was it supposed to know? You can get units that use TMC to receive traffic updates or even ones that have a mobile phone sim card in so they connect to the web to get updates but if your unit doesn't do that then it isn't the fault of the unit that you got stuck in traffic.

Sat nav units aren't a replacement for common sense. If I set mine to take me to Will's place (Crystal Palace) then it always wants to take me down the M1, Edgeware Road, around Park Lane and so on but I know to avoid that route like the plague at certain times of day.

My unit receives traffic updates but they are only as useful as they are accurate - it isn't uncommon to be stuck in traffic that the uni knows nothing about, but that isn't the fault of the unit as it can't warn me about traffic it doesn't know about.

[Admiral Huddy]

It has TMC :)

[Burble]

Yeah, but like I said it isn't uncommon to be sitting in traffic that TMC hasn't broadcast about.

[LeperousDust]

Sat nav is excellent if you use it righ as burble says. It's not going to do the driving for you, nor will it always take the "best" route (best is subjective anyway) what you could have done is avoided anywhere you knew would be bad and then let the sat nav pick you up again after re-routing. Following a sat nav religiously is a recipe for disaster (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-442730/96-000-Merc-written-satnav-leads-woman-astray.html) and something a woman would do (oof).

[Will]

Burble, you just love coming through the BW tunnel and you know that's why you hate Edgeware road ;)

[Burble]

I am quite fond of the Blackwall Tunnel. Can't think why though ;)

Plus last time I went home from yours the other way it took sodding hours (literally!) to get to the M1.

[Feek]

I put it down to the user. Huddy, you've seen yourself how good it can be *pokes*

[Admiral Huddy]

I know, i was thinking about that Sunday :D

[Pebs]

How did it make your exhaust fall off? My Satnav doesnt have that option :(

[Admiral Huddy]

How did it make your exhaust fall off? My Satnav doesnt have that option :(

I pressed the reset button :D

[AboveTheSalt]

I bought a Navi-Go 3½" SatNav from eBuyer in the summer because I had to get to a whole range of obscure places towing a 30 foot trailer at weekends. It was absolutely fantastic - just so long as I remembered to organise routes in stages so as to avoid known traffic nightmares like most motorways and so long as I actually trusted it and didn't assume I knew better.

It came with some software called TurboDog 5 but I replaced that with TomTom 7 and a whole medley of entertaining "Celebrity" voices - for the most part I use Sean Connery :)

The only time I really had a nightmare with it was when it elected to take me through the West End of London on a Friday night.

I think that so long as you use it sensibly, think about the route it is proposing and setup way-points to avoid known nightmares, a SatNav is a fantastic aid.

[Flibster]

The initial post was a lot milder than I was expecting.

I was expecting the battery in the sat nav to have leaked and melted a hole through the dash and Huddy's trousers, causing him to swerve violently and hit a camel that had escaped from a zoo.

2/10 for effort Huddy. :p

[Belmit]

Sat nav units aren't a replacement for common sense.

I think we can forgive Huddy for getting his hopes up.

[Burble]

I think we can forgive Huddy for getting his hopes up.

Good point, well made :)